I know I can't pay ye'r honor as I ought, only just for the love of God, and if ye 'd please to examine me in the Latin, his reverence said, I'd be no disgrace to you.'

"Just let me see what ye've got," said the schoolmaster. The boy drew forth from inside his waistcoat the remnant of a cotton night-cap, and held it towards the schoolmaster's extended hand; but Mary stood between her husband and his temptation.

until the gray cock, who always crowed at four, told her what the time was, and she thought she might as well sleep for a couple of hours; for Mary could not only pray when she liked, but sleep when she pleased, which is frequently the case with the innocent-hearted. As soon, however, as she hung the beads on the same nail that supported the holy water cross and cup, James gave a groan and a start, and called her- Give me your hand," he said, "that I may know it's you that 's in it." Mary did so, and affectionately bade God bless him.

"Put it up child," she said; "the masther does n't want it, he only had a mind to see if it was safe," then aside to her husband-"Let fall "Mary, my own ould darling," he whispered, ye'r hand, James, it's the devil that 's under ye'r"I'm a grate sinner, and all my learning is n't-elbow keeping it out, nibbling as the fishes do at isn't worth a brass farthing." Mary was really the hook; is it the thin shillings of a widow's son astonished to hear him say this. "It's quite in you'd be afther taking? It's not yerself that's airnest I am, dear, and here's the key of my little in it at all;"-then to the boy-" Put it up, dear, box, and go and bring out that poor scholar's and come in the morning. But the silver had night-cap, and take care of his money, and as shone in the master's eyes through the worn-out soon as day breaks intirely, go find out where he's knitting, the "thin shillings," as Mary called stopping, and tell him I'll never touch cross nor them, and their chink aroused his avarice the coin belonging to him, nor one of his class, and more. So, standing up, he put aside his wife, as give him back his coins of silver and his coins of men often do good counsel, with a strong arm, and brass; and Mary agra, if you've the power, turn declared that he would have all, or none, and that every boy in the parish into a poor scholar, that I without pay he would receive no pupil. The boy, may have the satisfaction of teaching them, for I've thirsting for learning, almost without hesitation, had a DREAM, Mary, and I'll tell it to you, who agreed to give him all he possessed, only saying, knows better than myself how to be grateful for that "the Lord above would rise him up some such a warning,-there, praise the holy saints! is friend who would give him a bit, a sup, and a a streak of daylight; now listen, Mary, and don't lock of straw to sleep on." Thus the bargain was interrupt me. struck, the penniless child turned from the door, knowing that, at least, for that night, he would receive shelter from some kind-hearted cotter, and perhaps give in exchange tuition to those who could not afford to go to the "great master," while the dispenser of knowledge, chinking the "thin shillings," strode towards a well-heaped hoard to add thereto the mite of a fatherless boy. Mary crouched over the cheerful fire, rocking herself backwards and forwards, in real sorrow, and determined to consult the priest as to the change that had come over her husband, turning him out of himself, into something "not right."

This was O'Leary's first public attempt to work out his determination, and he was thoroughly ashamed of himself; he did not care to encounter Mary's reproachful looks, so he brought over his blotted desk, and sat with his back to her, apparently intent on his books; but despite all he could do, his mind went wandering back to the time he was a poor scholar himself, and no matter whether he looked over problems, or turned the leaves of Homer, there was the pale, gentle face of the poor scholar, whom he had "fleeced" to the uttermost. Mary," he said, anxious to be reconciled to himself, there never was one of them poor scholars that had not twice as much as they purtended."

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"I suppose it's dead was first, but, any how, I thought I was floating about in a dark spaceand every minute I wanted to fly up, but something kept me down-I could not rise-and as I grew used to the darkness, you see, I saw a great many things floating about like myself-mighty curious shapes-one of them, with wings like a bat, came close up to me, and, after all, what was it but a Homer; and I thought may-be, it would help me up, but when I made a grab at it, it turned into smoke; then came a great white-faced owl, with red bothered eyes, and out of one of them glared a Voster, and out of the other a Gough, and globes. and inkhorns changed, Mary, in the sight of my two looking eyes into vivacious tadpoles, swimming here and there and making game of me as they passed-oh, I thought the time was a thousand years, and everything about me talking bad Latin and Greek that would bother a saint,. and I, without power to answer or to get away. I'm thinking it was the schoolmaster's purgatory I was in."

"But it changed, Mary, and I found myself, afther a thousand or two years, in the midst of a mist-there was a mistiness all around me-and in "Was that the way with yerself, avick?" she my head-but it was a clear, soft, downy-like answered. James pushed back the desk, flung vapor, and I had my full liberty in it, so I kept on the ruler at the cat-bounced the door after him- going up-up for ever so many years, and by deand went to bed. He did not fall very soon grees it cleared away, drawing itself into a bohreen asleep-nor when he did, did he sleep very soundly at either side, leading towards a great high hill of -but tossed and tumbled about in a most undigni- light, and I made straight for the hill; and having fied manner, so much so that his poor wife left got over it, I looked up, and of all the brightnesses off rocking, and, taking out her beads, began I ever saw, was the brightness above me the praying for him as hard and fast as she could; and brightest; and the more I looked at it the she believed her prayers took effect, for he soon brighter it grew, and yet there was no dazzle in became tranquil and slept soundly: but Mary went my eyes, and something whispered me that that on praying; she was accounted what was called the was heaven, and with that I fell down on my steadiest hand at prayers in the country, but, on this knees and asked how I was to get there; for mind particular night, she prayed on without stopping, ye, Mary, there was a gulf between me and the 31

XX.

LIVING AGE.

VOL. II.

First Ideas of Number for Children. First Ideas of Geography for Children.

hill, or, to speak more to your understanding, a | And, oh! but my heart's as light as the down of gap; the hill of light above me was in no ways a thistle, and all through my blessed dream." joined to the hill on which I stood. So I cried how was I to get there. Well, before you could say twice ten, there stood before me seven poor scholars, those seven, dear, that I taught, and that have taken the vestments since. I knew them all, and I knew them well. Many a hard day's work I had gone through with them, just for that holy, blessed pay, the love of God-there they stood,

and Abel at their head."

"Oh yah mulla! think of that now, my poor Aby; did n't I know the good, pure drop was in him!" interrupted Mary.

"The only way for you to get to that happy place, masther dear,' they said, 'is for you to make a ladder of us.'

"Is it a ladder of the

"Whisht, will ye," interrupted the masther. 'We are the stairs,' said they, that will lead you to that happy mansion-all your learning of which you were so proud-all your examinations-all your disquisitions and knowledge—your algebra and mathematics-your Greek-ay, or even your Hebrew, if you had that same, all are not worth a traneen. All the mighty fine doings, the greatness of man, or of man's learning, are not the value of a single blessing here; but we, masther jewel, WE ARE YOUR CHARITIES; seven of us poor boys, through your means, learned their dutyseven of us! and upon us you can walk up to the shining light, and be happy forever.'

The

Two tiny publications, addressed to parents; showing them how they may instruct children at an early age in the elements of number and geography, without the formality of teaching. principle is to possess the child with an idea of the thing before he is taught its sign. His toys and any familiar objects, varied by the more agreeable spectacle of one, two, or three apples or pears, are used in order to familiarize him with numbers; and a walk in the country is made use of to im press him with some of the leading divisions of land and water. A little at a time, thoroughly learned, is the fundamental maxim: the first lesson of number does not advance beyond "number one."-Spectator.

SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION OF PICTURES.-A large package of pictures was lately burnt without apparent cause, while in the course of being transported on the Edinburgh and Glasgow railway. The incident suggests to us to remark, that there is considerable reason for believing oil-paintings to be amongst the articles liable to spontaneous combustion. In the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, January, 1821, is a communication from Mr. James "I was not a bit bothered at the idea of making Gullan of Glasgow, stating the following facts :a step ladder of the seven holy creatures, who," Having sold a respectable spirit-dealer a parcel though they had been poor scholars, were far of sample-bottles, I sent them to him packed in an before myself where we were now; but as they old basket, the bottom of which was much broken. bent, I stept, first, on Abel, then on Paddy Blake, To prevent the bottles from falling through, I put then on Billy Murphy; but any how, when I got across the bottom of the basket a piece of old packto the end of the seven, I found there were five or ing-sheet, which had lain long about the waresix more wanting; I tried to make a spring, and house, which was an oil and color one, and was only for Abel I'd have gone-I don't know where besmeared with different kinds of vegetable oil. -he held me fast. O the Lord be merciful! is About six or eight weeks after, the gentleman this the way with me afther all," I said. "Boys informed me that my oily cloth and basket had -darlings can ye get me no more than half way almost set his warehouse on fire. The basket and afther all?" cloth had been thrown behind some spirit-casks pretty much confined from the air, and about midday he was alarmed by a smell of fire. Having moved away the casks in the direction where the smoke issued, he saw the basket and cloth in a blaze. This fact may be a useful hint to persons in public works, where galipoli, rapeseed, or linseed oils are used in their manufactures, as it is an established fact, (though not generally known,) that these vegetable oils used on cloths, yarn, or wool, in the process of dyeing, and confined for a time from the open air, are very apt to occasion spontaneous fire." Floor-cloth, and rags used in cleaning oil, are mentioned by Mr. Booth, lecturer on chemistry, as amongst forty various articles ascertained to be liable to spontaneous combustion; and there was an instance of this phenomenon at Lyons in 1815, where the material was cloth containing oil. Oil pictures being an association of oil with cloth, and nearly the same substance as floor-cloth, and this consideration being taken in connexion with the actual burning of a package of Mary made no reply-but sank on her knees by pictures without any external cause that could be the bed-side, weeping-tears of joy they were- detected, we can scarcely doubt that spontaneous she felt that her prayers had been heard and an-ignition may befall this class of works of art. The swered. "And now, Mary, let us up and be stir-knowledge of this fact, if it be one, cannot but be ring, for life is but short for the doing of our du- of importance to the public, both as suggesting ties. We'll have the poor scholars to breakfast precautionary measures, and preventing blame beand darling, you'll look out for more of them. ing cast on parties not fairly liable to it.

"Sure there must be more of us to help you,' makes answer Paddy Blake. Sure ye lived many years in the world after we left you,' says Abel, and, unless you hardened your heart, it isn't possible but you must have had a dale more of us to help you. Sure you were never content, having tasted the ever-increasing sweetness of seven good deeds, to stop short and lave your task unfinished? Oh, then, if you did, masther,' said the poor fellow, if you did, it's myself that's sorry for you.' Well, Mary, agra! I thought my heart would burst open, when I remembered what came over me last night-and much more-arithmetical calculations-when I had full and plinty, of what the little you gave and I taught came to-and every niggard thought was like a sticking up dagger in my heart and I looking at a glory I could never reach, because of my cramped heart, and just then I woke I'm sure I must have had the prayers of some holy creature about me to cause such a warning."

From the Gallery of Portraits.
FOX.

THE Right Honorable Charles James Fox was third son of the Right Honorable Henry Fox, afterwards Lord Holland, and of Lady Georgina Caroline Fox, eldest daughter of Charles, second Duke of Richmond. He was born January 24th, 1749, N. S.

in 1768, he was chosen to represent Midhurst, and made his first speech on the 15th April, 1769. According to Horace Walpole, he spoke with violence, but with infinite superiority of parts.

Circumscribed as we are as to space, we shall not follow Mr. Fox's subaltern career in the House of Commons. It was his breach with Lord North that raised him into a party leader. He had previously formed an intimate acquaintance Mr. Fox received his education at Eton; and with Mr. Burke. He began by receiving the lesthe favorite studies of the place had more than sons of that eminent person as a pupil; but the ordinary influence over his tastes and literary pur- master was soon so convinced of his scholar's greatsuits in after-life. Before he left school, his father ness of character, and statesman-like turn of mind, was so imprudent as to carry him to Paris and Spa. that he resigned the lead to him, and became an To his early associations at the latter place may efficient coadjutor in the Rockingham party, of be ascribed that propensity to gaming, which was which, in the House of Commons, he had almost the bane of two-thirds of his life. As the present been the dictator. The American war roused all article is not designed to be a mere panegyric, we the energies of Fox's mind. The discussions to abandon the indulgence of this fatal passion to the which it gave rise involved all the first principles severest censure that can be bestowed upon it by of free government. The vicissitudes of the conthe philosopher and the moralist: but justice de- test tried the firmness of the parliamentary opmands it at our hands to say, that after the adjust-position. Its duration exercised their perseverance. ment of Mr. Fox's affairs by his friends, personal Its magnitude and the dangers of the country calland political, he resolutely conquered what habit ed forth their powers. Gibbon says, "Mr. Fox had almost raised into second nature, and abstain- discovered powers for regular debate, which ed from play with scrupulous fidelity. It may further be remarked, that while the paroxysms of the fever were most violent, his mind was never interrupted from more worthy objects of pursuit.

neither his friends hoped nor his enemies dreaded." The following passage, from a letter to Mr. Fitz-Patrick, written in 1778, illustrates his honorable and independent character: "People flatter me that I continue to gain rather than lose The following anecdote will show the divided estimation as an orator; and I am so convinced empire which discordant passions alternately usur- this is all I ever shall gain (unless I choose to be ped over his heart. On a night when he had sus- one of the meanest of men,) that I never think of tained some serious losses, his deportment assum- any other object of ambition. I am certainly amed so much of the character of despair, that his bitious by nature, but I have, or think I have, friends became uneasy: they followed him at dis- totally subdued that passion. I have still as much tance enough to elude his observation, from the vanity as ever, which is a happier passion by far, club-house to his home in the neighborhood. They because great reputation, I think, may acquire knocked at his door in time, as they thought, to and keep; great situations I never can acquire, have prevented any rash act, and rushed into the nor, if acquired, keep, without making sacrifices library. There they found the object of their that I will never make." In the summer of 1778, anxiety stretched on the ground without his coat, he rejected Lord Weymouth's overtures to join before the fire: his hand neither grasping a razor the ministry, and took his station as the leading nor a pistol, but his eyes intently fixed on the commoner in the Rockingham party, to which he pages of Herodotus. The old historian had had become attached on principle long before he engrossed him wholly from the moment when he enlisted permanently in its ranks. The conspicutook up the volume, and the ruins of his own air-ous features of that party, and of Mr. Fox's pubbuilt castles vanished from before him, as soon as he got sight of the venerable remains of the ancient world.

lic character, were the love of peace with foreign powers, the spirit of conciliation in home management, an ardent attachment to civil and religious liberty.

At Oxford Mr. Fox distinguished himself by his powers of application, as well as by the intui- The day of triumph came at last, when a resotive quickness of his parts. On quitting the uni-lution against the further prosecution of the versity, he accompanied his father and mother to American war was carried in the Commons. The the south of Europe. Not finding a good Italian King was compelled, reluctantly, to part with the master at Naples, he taught himself that language supporters of his favorite principles, and had nothduring the winter, and contracted a strong partial- ing left but to sow the seeds of disunion between ity for Italian literature. In a letter from Florence to Mr. Fitz-Patrick, he conjures that gentleman to learn Italian as fast as he can, if it were only to read Ariosto; and adds, "There is more good poetry in Italian than in all other languages I understand put together." At a later period of life, if we may judge from the tenor of his correspondence with eminent scholars, he would have transferred that praise from the Italian to the Greek tongue. At this time he was very fond of acting plays, and was in all respects the man of fashion. Those who recollect the simplicity, bordering on negligence, of his outward garb late in life, will smile at the idea of Mr. Fox with a powdered toupee and red heels to his shoes, the hero of private theatricals. During his absence,

the Rockingham and Chatham or Shelburne party, united on the subject of America, but disagreeing on many other points both of external and internal policy. In this he was but too successful. We have neither space nor inclination to unravel the web of court intrigue; but we may remark that Lord Rockingham's demands were too extensive to be palatable: they involved the independence of America, the pacification of Ireland, bills for economical and parliamentary reform, to be brought into Parliament as ministerial measures. But the untimely death of Lord Rockingham frustrated his enlightened and enlarged designs, by dissolving the ministry over which he had presided. Mr. Fox has been blamed for the precipitancy of his resignation. The tone of sentiment in a letter before

called forth his most powerful exertions. His force as a professed orator was conspicuously displayed in Westminster Hall, on the trial of Warren Hastings; but the triumph of his talents is to be found in those masterly replies to his antagonists, in which cutting sarcasm and close argument, logical acuteness and metaphysical subtlety were so combined, as to surpass all that modern experience had witnessed. The constitutional doctrines of Mr. Fox on the Regency question were much canvassed, and, by many, severely censured. The fact was, that the case was new; provided for neither by law, precedent, nor analogy. Lord Loughborough first suggested the Prince's claim of right; and it was hastily adop ted by Mr. Fox, who had returned from Italy just as the discussion was pending. Mr. Fox's Libel Bill places him among the most constitutional of our legislators. He saved his country from an unnecessary, unjust, and expensive war, by his exertions on occasion of the Russian Armament.

The controversy on the Test and Corporation Acts has lost its interest, from having since been satisfactorily set at rest. But as, in a sketch like the present, we have more to do with the character of Mr. Fox's mind than with his political history, we will here introduce an anecdote which the writer of this life heard related many years ago, by Dr. Abraham Rees, well known both in the scientific world, and as a leading divine in the dissenting interest. We have already spoken of the intuitive quickness of Mr. Fox's parts; and the following anecdote will set that peculiarity in a strong light.

quoted will both account and apologise for the rash-poration and Test Acts, were the topics which ness if it were such; and it is obvious that the sacrifice of personal feeling, or even of political consistency, could not long have deferred it, amidst the cabals and clashing interests of party. Mr. Fox's policy was to detach Holland and America from France, and to form a continental balance against the House of Bourbon. Lord Shelburne's system was to conciliate France, and to treat her allies as dependent powers. Lord Shelburne had the ear of the King. He strengthened himself with some of the old supporters of the American war, to fill the vacant offices, and made Mr. Pitt, just rising into eminence, his Chancellor of the Exchequer. There were now three parties in the Commons; the ministerial, the Whig or Rockingham, and the third consisting of those members of the late war ministry who had not been invited to join the present. A coalition of some two of these three parties was alınost unavoidable the public would have most approved of a reunion among the Whigs; but there had been too much of mutual recrimination and dispute to admit of reconciliation. Nothing, therefore, remained but a junction of the two parties in opposition. A judicious friend of Mr. Fox said, "that to undertake the government with Lord North, was to risk their credit on very unsafe grounds. Unless a real good government is the consequence of this junction, nothing can justify it to the public." Popular feeling was strongly against this coalition, mainly on account of some personal acrimony vented by Mr. Fox, in the boiling over of his wrath during the American contest, which seemed to bear upon the moral character of his opponent. It is to be considered, however, On the day of the debate, Dr. Rees waited on that the most amiable persons, if enthusiastic, are Mr. Fox with a deputation, to engage his support apt in the heat of passion to launch out into invec- in their cause. He received them courteously: tive far more violent than their natural benevolence but, though a friend to religious liberty, was eviwould justify in their cooler moments. The ques-dently unacquainted with the strong points and tion on which Mr. Fox and Lord North had been principal bearings of their peculiar case. He lisso acrimoniously opposed, had ceased to exist: tened attentively to their exposition, and, with an and perhaps there existed no solid reason against eye that looked them through and through, put the union of the two parties. But the measure was almost universally believed to arise from corrupt motives it afforded a fine scope for satire and caricature; and these have no small influence upon the politics of the multitude. And while the people were displeased, the King was decidedly unfriendly to the administration which had forced itself upon him. He considered the Rockingham party as enemies to his prerogative, as well as friends to American independence. He was forced to take them in, but resolved to throw them out again. The unpopular India bill, which Mr. Pitt afterwards adopted with some modifications, furnished the opportunity. The offence taken by the people against the coalition, made them lend a ready ear to the charge of ministerial oligarchy: the King disguised his sentiments till the last moment, procured the rejection of the bill in the Lords, and instantly dismissed his minis

ters.

The coalition was still in possession of the House of Commons; but the voice of the people supported the minister, a dissolution was resorted to, and the will of the King was accomplished.

From 1784 to 1792, Mr. Fox was leader of a powerful party in the House of Commons, in opposition to Mr. Pitt. The Westminster Scrutiny, the Regency, the abatement of Impeachments by a dissolution of Parliament, the Libel Bill, the Russian Armament, and the Repeal of the Cor

four or five searching questions. They withdrew after a short conference, and as they walked up St. James's Street, Mr. Fox passed them booted, as going to take air and exercise, to enable him to encounter the heat of the House and the storm of debate. From the gallery they saw him enter the House with whip in hand, as just dismounted. When he rose to speak, he displayed such mastery of his subject, his arguments and illustrations were so various, his views so profound and statesmanlike, that a stranger must have imagined the question at issue between the high church party and the dissenters to have been the main subject of his study throughout life. That his principles of civil and religious liberty should have enabled him to declaim in splendid generalities was to be expected; but he entered as fully and deeply into the fundamental principles and most subtle distinctions of the question, as did those to whom it was of vital importance, and that after a short conference of some twenty minutes.

The French revolution is a topic of such magnitude, that we can only touch upon Mr. Fox's opinions and conduct with respect to it. After the taking of the Bastille, he describes it as "the greatest, and much the best event that ever happened in the world: all my prepossessions against French connections for this country will be at an end, and indeed most part of my European system of politics will be altered, if this revolution has the

consequence that I expect." But it had not that consequence; and his views were completely changed by the trial and execution of the King and Queen of France. But because he did not catch the contagious disease, made up of alarm and desperate violence, which involved his country in a disastrous war, he was represented as the blind apologist of injustice and massacre, as the careless, if not jacobinical spectator of the downfall of monarchy. Mr. Burke was the first to quarrel with Mr. Fox, and this quarrel led to the temporary estrangement from him of many of his oldest and most valuable friends. But time and the hour" restored the good understanding between the members of the party, with the exception of Mr. Burke, who died while the paroxysm of Antigallican mania was at its height.

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1802, partly to satisfy their mutual curiosity after so long an estrangement from the Continent, but principally for the purpose of examining the copious materials for the reign of James H., deposited in the Scotch college there. Every thing was thrown open to him in the most liberal manner, and, as the unflinching friend of peace through good and evil report, he was received with enthusiasm both by the people and the government. He had several interviews with Bonaparte: the chief topics of their conversation were the concordat, the trial by jury, the freedom, amounting in the opinion of the First Consul to licentiousness, of the English press, the difference between Asiatic and European society. On one occasion he indignantly repelled the charge against Mr. Windham, of being accessory to the plot of the infernal machine, alleging the utter impossibility of an English gentleman descending to so disgraceful a device. During his stay in France, he visited La Fayette at his country seat of La Grange.

Our limits will not allow us to enter, ever so cursorily, into his political career after the renewal of the war. His advice was wise, and consistent with himself; but it was not accepted. The King's dislike of him was not to be overcome. The death of Mr. Pitt, however, made the admission of Mr. Fox and the Whigs, in conjunction with Lord Grenville, a matter of necessity. Mr. Fox's desire of peace induced him to take the office of Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs; and, before his fatal illness, he had begun a negotiation for that main object of his whole life, with every apparent prospect of success. The hopes entertained from his accession to power were prematurely cut off; but his short career in office was honorably marked by the ministerial measure, determined on during his life, and carried after his decease, of the abolition of the Slave Trade.

The complaint of which he died was dropsy, occasioned probably by the duties of office, and the fatigue of constant attendance in the House of Commons, after the comparative seclusion and learned ease in which he had lived for several years. He expired on the 13th of September, 1806, with his senses perfect and his understanding unclouded to the last.

Mr. Fox opposed to the utmost the war, into which the minister was unwillingly forced. But as his passions became heated, and the difficulties of his situation increased, Mr. Pitt adopted all Mr. Burke's views, and the rash project of a bellum internecinum. Both the public principles and the personal character of Mr. Fox were the subject of daily calumnies; and the warmth of his early testimony in favor of the French revolution was continually thrown in his teeth, after the 10th of August, the massacres of September, and the success of Dumourier. But his whole conduct during this struggle was clear and consistent. At the dawn of the revolution, he felt and spoke as a citizen of the world; but he was the last man alive to have merged patriotism in the vague generalities of universal benevolence. When his own country became implicated in the strife, he no longer felt and spoke as a citizen of the world, but as a British statesman; and endeavored to persuade his countrymen, not for French interests but for their own, to stand aloof from continental politics, relying, for the maintenance of a proud independence and dignified neutrality, on their insular situation and their wooden walls. His advice was not listened to, and his mind grew indisposed towards public business. He says in a letter, dated April, 1795, "I am perfectly happy in the country. I have quite resources enough to employ my mind, and the great resource of literature I am fonder of every day." After making a vigorous, but unsuccessful opposition to the Treason and Sedition bills, he and his remaining friends seceded from parliament. He passed the years from 1797 to 1802, principally in retirement at St. Ann's Hill; "Mr. Fox united, in a most remarkable degree, and they were the happiest of his life. His morn- the seemingly repugnant characters of the mildest ings passed in gardening and farming, his evenings of men and the most vehement of orators. over books and in conversation with his family and private life he was gentle, modest, placable, kind, friends. During this period, his attention was of simple manners, and so averse from dogmatism, much given to the Greek Tragedies and to Homer, as to be not only unostentatious, but even somewhom he read not only with the ardent mind of a thing inactive in conversation. His superiority poet, but with the microscopic eye of a critic. His was never felt but in the instruction which he imcorrespondence with an eminent scholar of the parted, or in the attention which his generous preftime was full of sagacious remarks on the sugges-erence usually directed to the more obscure memtions and explanations of the commentators, as well as on the text of the poem. At this time also he conceived the plan of that history of which he left only a splendid fragment in a state fit for publication. He had been diligent in collecting materials, and scrupulous in verifying them. His partiality for the Greek classics followed him into this pursuit, and probably retarded his progress. He is considered to have taken for his model Thucydides, a writer strictly impartial in his narrative, grave even to severity in his style. He went to Paris with Mrs. Fox in the summer of

We conclude this brief account of Mr. Fox with the character drawn of him by one who knew him well, and was fully qualified to appreciate him,Sir James Mackintosh.

In

bers of the company. The simplicity of his manners was far from excluding that perfect urbanity and amenity which flowed still more from the mildness of his nature, than from familiar intercourse with the most polished society of Europe. The pleasantry perhaps of no man of wit had so unlabored an appearance. It seemed rather to escape from his mind, than to be produced by it. He had lived on the most intimate terms with all his contemporaries distinguished by wit, politeness, or philosophy; by learning, or the talents of public life. In the course of thirty years he had